Pastel sketch: Sinus Iridium

Yesterday I made a pastel sketch of one of the nicest features on the Moon: Sinus Iridium. The Sun's angle was just right to give the surface that gradient view: dark near Montes Jura with a gradual brightening towards the west. A few rilles were also visible. It was a very pretty sight through my 300mm f/4 truss Dob using a 5mm HR Planetary eyepiece (240x). Sketch made with white pastel on black paper.

And one more well deserved compliment for that one !!! Verrry beautiful.Looking closer, I notice exactly what I saw yesterday: the nice triangular shape of Promontorium Laplace: very impressive. Keep on feeding us.

I thought it must have been at least twice that size, the detail is incredibly fine. For example the texture of the floors of the two craters in the upper left, the speckling must be minute!!There are also some jagged lines in the wall of the basin on the right had side near the terminator, they must have been added with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil.

For example the texture of the floors of the two craters in the upper left, the speckling must be minute!!

Actually, that just the texture of the paper itself, I didn't really apply those speckles. The crater floor is in fact the partly erased white backgroud. Because the white pastel background is firmly rubbed into the surface of the paper, the eraser only picks up the upper part, leaving some pastel in the "grooves".

There are also some jagged lines in the wall of the basin on the right had side near the terminator, they must have been added with a 0.5mm mechanical pencil.

Those are scratches in the white pastel, made with a very sharp tipped graphite pencil. I always end my sketch with adding some of those fine details.